To The Future
by Reddragon13x
Summary: Kakashi remembers the lessons he learned long ago while watching his students.


To The Future

Notes: Sorry for not posting in a while. I was originally going to wait until I had gotten this edited to post it but since it had been a while since I added something I thought this might be a nice treat. Forgive all spelling and grammatical mistakes please, I'm unfortunately not perfect. Enjoy!

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Kakashi silently watched as the former Team Seven trained. His lone visible eye followed their actions like a hawk and his mouth opened to give advice or chastisements but it was all automatic. His true thoughts lay on the raven haired female who had oh so long ago trained him like this: instructing him, letting him try it out, then critiquing him on everything from how his hair flopped in his eye to how he held his kunai.

_Kagome. _

The name still brought back pain after all these years with out her. Kakashi couldn't help but wonder if she would have approved of the team he had raised or if –like when she had first seen him- immediately find their flaws and brutally make them correct them. It pained him to even think it but he knew it was true. _They just weren't good enough. _Sure they had good teamwork and sure they where each powerful shinobi, but what really mattered: the trust that would save their lives more than once was gone. Shattered by their past and their future.

_Kagome, what would you do? I wish I had the answers to every question about the future like you did. I wish I were able to _trust_ like you, Kagome._

He frowned and gave a mental shake of the head at his thoughts about her. She would probably just scold him and have him train harder in penance. But despite it all (or maybe in spite of it) Kagome had stood by him, she had silently and calmly watched as he blew up at her and her harsh way of training him. She had guided him until his hard work had come to fruitition then left. Kakashi felt a silent pang as he remembered how she had stood before him delivering her harsh words before turning and leaving him standing there stunned. She left him forever, because as he later learned she left on a suicide mission and never returned.

_How dare you Kakashi?! You know you have no right to that! I cannot believe that you would do something like that! Have you no shame? Or was this all to spite me for trying to make you better than what you are right now: a spoiled, rude, pathetic _child_. May kami have mercy on your soul Kakashi because I refuse to protect you from the world any longer. _

Despite knowing that he deserved it Kakashi still had nightmares of the day Kagome delivered those words and disappeared with his innocence firmly in tow. But he knew if anything Kagome's leaving had made him stronger, and watching his team work to become better he silently made peace with his old sensei; the one who had given him his life back, who trained his body and his heart to be strong enough to endure what would inevitably come. And he opened his heart to the future; to those who would eventually teach their own students the same lessons he would now teach them.

"Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto. Come here." Observing as they obediently trotted closer sure that he was going to offer criticism about something they had messed up they where stunned when he hugged them all.

"A teacher of mine long ago once said that if you never make peace with your past you will never make peace with your future. I believe she was right, thus we're going to spend the rest of the day making peace with our pasts." With that Kakashi released them and with a quick hand sign sealed all three of them inside a huge dirt cube.

After a moment of stunned silence as they registered what he had just done team Kakashi burst into angry shouts and threats which where met by Kakashi's cheerful laughter and the following advice.

"You had better make peace with each other quick, nights falling and I have nothing to do for the rest of the week."

Sitting on the ground beside the giant cube and listening to his team's angry squawks Kakashi smiled for once in a long time.

_They may not be perfect Kagome, but they'll learn. I promise they'll learn, just like you promised me that I would learn. And one day when they're strong and grown I'll tell them about you Kagome, but only when they're able to handle the truth. Because like you, that is my shinobi way._

_Rest in peace sensei.

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I know I shouldn't be posting more stuff without updating Betrayal but well I haven't gotten inspiration for it yet so I decided to follow up on some other ideas. Hope you liked it and don't forget to review! Oh, and the next chapter of The Nine Sins will be up as soon as I get it back from my beta.


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